Chicago Still On Pace to Lead Nation in Homicides

The body count continues to climb in Chicago, but it is lower than last year. Still, the city could rack up more murders this year than any other city, according to predictions. (Dave Workman)

It was a particularly bloody weekend in Chicago, according to the Chicago Sun-Times, which reported nine people killed and another 29 wounded between Friday evening and Monday morning.

While CNN has tried to put a nice face on the problem, reporting that May marked the 15th consecutive month of declining “gun violence,” The Crime Report website reported May 30, “Despite the 19 percent decline in murders and 20 percent decrease in shootings, Chicago has tallied nearly as many homicides in 2018 as New York City (106) and Los Angeles (92) combined.”

It is all a matter of perspective. Anti-gun Democrat Mayor Rahm Emanuel told CNN that the city is a “Trump free zone” with the decline in slayings over the past 15 months. But Emanuel should pull out a calendar and acknowledge who has been in the White House over that period. It wasn’t Barack Obama.

According to the Crime Report, “The city has had 191 murders so far in 2018, compared with 237 murders at the same point last year, and is on pace once again to record more homicides than any other U.S. city. There have been 821 shooting incidents so far this year compared with 1,032 at the same point last year.”

The Windy City seems to give both sides of the gun debate something to talk about. In Emanuel’s case, he boasted, “We have facts. What matters … is what happens on the street.”
Over the weekend, what happened on the streets of Chicago was mayhem, and there is still the July 4 and Labor Day holidays over the horizon.

Meanwhile, the Washington Postnoted last week that “out of 52,175 homicides in 50 cities over the past decade, 51 percent did not result in an arrest.” That is an alarming admission about the ability to solve homicides and the story included a table by which the crime states from certain cities could be found.

In Chicago, according to the report, the past 11 years have produced 5,534 murders, of which a whopping 74 percent did not result in an arrest.

In Baltimore, another city with tough gun laws, there were 2,827 killings and 65 percent of those went without an arrest, the Washington Post revealed.

In Washington, D.C., there were 1,345 murders over the 11-year stretch and 44 percent of those did not result in an arrest.

Instead of making arrests and putting perpetrators behind bars, authorities in those and other cities have found an easier way to score points with worried constituents. They declare war on law-abiding gun owners.

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About Dave Workman

Dave Workman is an award-winning career journalist with an expertise in firearms and the outdoors. He is the author of several books dealing with firearms politics. He has a degree in editorial journalism from the University of Washington and is a lifelong Washington resident.